Take Two: Every Story Starts Somewhere...
An introduction to Single Ever After: Chapter by Chapter
Greetings from sunny Cambridge, UK!
Soooooo… it turns out that most of you didn’t receive this post in your inbox at the time of its publication 10 days ago. My apologies for the error caused by my technical ineptitude! (And yes, I’ve fixed it now.)
So read on to find Take Two of post #1 in my ‘Single Ever After: Chapter by Chapter’ series.
Chances are, you also didn’t receive this week’s post (on Chapter One) either. So, once you've read this one, click the button at the end (or here) for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the first chapter of Single Ever After.
Happy Reading!
Dani
As Christians, we’ve all grown up with a story in the air. It may not always be one read aloud, but it hums in the background—in books, films, sermons, and small talk. It’s the story that says a full life begins only after marriage. That “happily ever after” means coupledom. That singleness is a problem to solve, a season to pass through, or a waiting room for something better.
It’s a powerful story. But it’s not a biblical one.
The Gospel offers us a different narrative—one where fullness of life isn’t dependent on a spouse (good as one of those may be!) but gifted to us by our Saviour (John 10:10). Where ultimate hope doesn’t lie at the altar, but arises from the empty tomb (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). Where family is not just—or even finally—biological, but spiritual and eternal (Ephesians 2:19-22).
That’s the deeper story I try to tell in my new book, Single Ever After (releasing on September 1st, 2025). And this is the first post of the book’s companion series, Single Ever After: Chapter by Chapter.
Ahead of the book’s release, I’ll reflect weekly on one chapter of Single Ever After. I’ll share what I wrestled with while writing it, why I think the chapter matters, and how I hope it might help us rethink what it means to be single in Christ and to love singles who are in Christ.
Each post will include a short excerpt from the book, some behind-the-scenes insight, a heads-up about what to expect in that chapter and a brief invitation to engage with the ideas.
It is my prayerful hope that Single Ever After (and this companion series) will provide an opportunity for us to look afresh at the Bible’s vision for the significance of singleness—to look again at passages we thought we understood, questions we’ve stopped asking, and possibilities about the dignity, meaning and the purpose of the unmarried life that we’ve long forgotten.
We’re not rewriting Scripture here (God forbid). But we are asking the Spirit to help us retrain our eyes, hearts and minds as we read it afresh.
And so, whether you’re single or married, content or struggling, never-married, widowed, divorced, dating, or pastoring those who are—this book (and this series) is for you.
So let’s take it chapter by chapter.
Let’s relearn what it means to live a good, God-given unmarried life in Christ. Let’s rediscover the significance of singleness within and for the household of God. And let’s delight in both a married and single “ever after” that has wonderfully already begun.
Over to You
Here are a few ways you can be part of the Single Ever After story.
📖 Single Ever After is available for preorder at the links below. Each advance order will help more people discover the book when it launches.
📝 Leave a comment below and share your reflections. Is there anything you are hoping Single Ever After might delve into?
📣 Know someone who would be interested (or should be interested!) in Single Ever After and this companion series? Share this post with them and invite them to read along with you.
📬 Not subscribed yet? Click here (or below) to follow along and ensure the rest of this series lands in your inbox.
I hope I'm not repeating myself too much, I apologize if I am. I was single until I was 34, so maybe I can compare. When I was single I could easily avoid anything unpleasant or difficult, as humans are wired to do. But once I got married I was forced to do things I didn't want. I can't stress enough how involuntary this was. Since the level of stress was involuntary, it changed me more than I could have by myself. I believe this is a dynamic God created with marriage.
The impossible tension of wanting and needing a relationship but having it stress you in ways you'd normally not put up with, and therefore make changes in you that would normally never happen, or that you couldn't do for yourself, even if you were told to. I was never willing to subject myself to so much soul-searching as a single person.